Read Theirs to Bear: Icy Cap Den #3 (Alaskan Den Men) Online
Authors: Jennifer Hilt
Theirs to Bear: Icy Cap Den #3 (Alaskan Den Men) (6 page)
W
e found
Leo chasing skua birds along the shoreline and scavenging debris. The young shifter was so intent on his game, he didn’t notice our approach until the wind changed, carrying our scent. A hungry adult ice bear could easily have killed Leo for sport as much as food. But, thankfully, we found him when we did. By then we were out of the two-way radios’ range and couldn’t notify Liv. We three hurried back to Icy Cap with Gary and Leo on my back. I was not risking that little shifter wandering off again.
As soon as we reached the edge of Icy Cap, the sulfur odor hit me. Dark magic. It grew more potent as we approached Liv’s place.
It couldn’t be.
No.
At Liv’s back door, the place reeked. The door wasn’t latched when Gary entered. Sensing the dark magic, Leo slid off my back and paced between my front paws, whining.
Gary returned shaking his head. “She’s gone. It’s Rika. The odor is the same. No sign of a struggle.”
With Leo missing, Rika could easily convince Liv to join her in the search. But what did the succubus want with Liv? Human females weren’t of interest to the succubus since they were immune to glamour. From what my cousins told me, this succubus always had a plan.
I took off, leaving Leo and Gary at Liv’s house. No harm would come to them now. If I tracked the scent of dark magic, it’d lead me to Liv. Certainly this was a trap. I’d lost Liv once before, and never again would I fail to act regarding her.
Rika had taken her toward the Brooks mountain range, the opposite direction from the sea. This was where my cousin Dane, his mate, and Gary burned Rika’s lair to the ground a few months back. I’d been over this area multiple times, but I’d never caught the dark magic scent like I did today.
It felt good to be let my ice bear spirit rise. I ran miles easily, never once bothered by the elements. Instead I relished them. Possessive power raged through me. I would kill this succubus. She dared to take Liv—my mate—from me?
I’d not asked Liv to accept me as her mate, but in my heart I knew it was true. She was the only woman for me. I’d raise Leo up as my son, teaching him all the ways of the ice bear shifter and, when the time came, manhood.
The blizzard weakened. Snow continued falling steadily, but the temperature warmed. Ice stuck to the fur between my pads. I gained elevation as I followed them. Mingled with the dark magic was Liv’s scent. I smelled her fear.
This was exactly what I’d been afraid of. I’d wanted her away from Icy Cap because as a human she was easy prey for a malevolent paranorm. Now my worst fears had come to pass. Liv was captive to one of the few creatures more powerful than me.
I’m coming for you.
What was Rika doing, heading up into the mountains this late in the year? The fresh snow was covering the warmed snowpack below. Springtime was avalanche season in the mountains. Rika knew that.
I loped up the steep incline as lightly as my bulky body allowed. Ice bears move gracefully, but dislodging a shelf of soft ice and sending it crashing down a mountain was something even I couldn’t survive.
What was plan of this crazy bitch succubus? It might be the last thing I did, but she was going down.
Up ahead, the scent drew me. My fur bristled. A growl rose up deep in my belly.
Rika was marching Liv up the mountain. They zigzagged to prevent triggering an avalanche. Didn’t matter; loosened ice chunks rolled down anyway. I dodged the first two, but the third one took me by surprise. I turned my head just in time to avoid getting hit face-on. Instead it was like a fist of ice slamming my right ear.
My bellow rang out against the snowpack. If Rika hadn’t known I was following her before, she knew now.
I’m coming for you, Liv. Hang on.
The midday sun burned through the last of the clouds. No more blizzard. Instead, the sunbeams warmed the new snow, making it slick over the snowpack. My ear rang from the hit. A trickle of blood stained the snow, marking the path I followed.
T
ristan was here
. Not with us, but close behind. His below made me shiver for reasons that had nothing to do with temperature.
“Ice bears. Never subtle.” Rika poked me in the back as we climbed.
I wanted to free myself from her, but for the first time since Ted died, fear gripped me. My marriage to an abusive ice bear was a picnic compared to the threat of dark magic wiping out my son. Being with Leo as he grew was no longer my biggest concern. His very survival was now top priority.
“Stop dawdling. Keep it moving,” Rika said. “Don’t get all mushy on me now.”
How to stop her from setting the town on fire?
I couldn’t see Rika behind me, but I could feel her distraction with Tristan following us. She muttered and cursed in a language I’d never heard before. Increasingly, snow chunks from our footsteps fell down the mountain. My pace slowed, and dizziness overcame me. This wasn’t dark magic. This was lack of oxygen from our fast ascent.
Rika’s gnarled walking stick surely aided her, but I had only my puny human lungs and lack of physical fitness. The trail narrowed again. Ahead, a curve beckoned—or my eyes were playing tricks on me. I had to do something. Throwing myself over the edge would be easiest, but suicide wouldn’t help Leo. Rika would still burn the town, with my son in it.
I’d have happily tossed Rika over the edge, by my face still ached from the invisible force field she threw at me the last time.
“Stop!” Rika called.
I turned around. She dug around in her evil purse, out of my reach. I rested my hands on my knees, panting.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“Elevation.”
Rika snorted. “Not my problem you’ve never seen the inside of a gym. You humans are so soft. How you are successfully ruining the planet at this pace impresses me, considering how weak your own bodies are.”
Where the hell was Tristan now? I could no longer hear his outraged growls.
I launched myself at Rika, aiming low for her knees. This was no airborne tackle but more like a belly flop on my part. Surprise and my low center of gravity were more effective than I’d guessed.
“Oomph.” Rika hit the ground face up, with me landing on top of her.
That’s when my unappreciated previously good luck ended. To our horror, our momentum propelled the two of us downward.
As a kid back in Ohio, I loved sledding. I was even pretty good at it, sensing when to lean one way or the other, just so, to increase my speed. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined such experience would one day find me riding a succubus down an Alaskan mountain.
“Watch out!” I called. My first full-on look at ice bear Tristan was his dark eyes wide in surprise.
I closed my eyes, bracing for impact. Surely we would hit him at this speed. Instead, I felt the whoosh of moving air. The back of my jacket jerked like a parachute opening.
I cracked open my eyes.
The ice bear’s right paw had plucked me right off Rika. I was suspended from his enormous black claws while his left paw swatted her away from me. She went airborne, a look of surprise mixed with outrage creasing her face. Her fur hat flew off. Her cane dropped.
Tristan bellowed. I was never sure if that was satisfaction at separating us or disappointment that Rika was still intact.
The succubus continued tumbling down the mountain, dislodging snow.
That particular spot she came into contact with must have been warmer than farther up the mountain. The snow around her point of impact cracked and then, in one fluid motion, gave way. An avalanche rolled down the mountain in a blinding cloud of snow. The roar was louder than anything an ice bear was capable of.
And she was gone in that fresh mountain of snow.
Far beyond, Icy Cap rested undisturbed.
Tristan lowered me to the ground, careful to keep me away from the edge.
I was shaking. “Did you find Leo?”
The ice bear nodded.
“He’s safe?”
The bear nodded again.
I flexed my cramped hand, releasing Rika’s bag. I had gripped it when we separated. Tucking it in my jacket pocket, I touched my ice bear’s bleeding ear.
“Come on, let’s go home.”
W
e returned home
, courtesy of my ice bear. A grimy Leo was fast asleep in child form on the couch next to Gary. The babysitter raised his head from his current copy of
Modern Taxidermist
, placing a finger to his lips to quiet us.
“He’s exhausted, and honestly he had a few too many cookies before he conked out. If you wake him, you will quite literally have a little bear on your hands.” Gary slid off the couch and tiptoed to the door.
Stopping by Liv, he kissed her on the forehead. “Glad you’re back. See you tomorrow. ” Then to me he said, “You killed her.”
It was a statement, not a question.
“Avalanche. Nothing could survive that. Even a succubus.”
Gary raised an eyebrow at me but exited the back door without a word.
Liv locked the door behind him. She reached up, touching my bloodstained face. Her fingertips danced along my brow. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Hope surged inside me. I may have been battered and bruised, but if Liv wanted to play doctor, I was happy to oblige.
***
T
hank
you so much for reading
Theirs to Bear!
I hope you enjoyed Tristan and Liv’s story. I loved writing about a couple who had a bit of life experience on their path to true love. Plus I love a hot brooding hero and a feisty heroine. Gary and Leo were so much fun to write about because I had no idea where things would go when I started this story. Gary will find his own Happily Ever After with a special Icy Cap Halloween edition release in late summer.
Stay tuned for more Alaskan Den Men! We’ve got Christmas stories headed your way this fall. I’m working on an Icy Cap novel which should be ready later this year.
In the meantime, I hope you’ll keep in touch. To catch up on all the books in the Alaskan Den Men Collection, you can sign up for the ADM Newsletter here:
Newsletter
. And you can join the ADM Facebook fan group here:
The Alaskan Denettes
. It’s a lively group where we share pictures of chiseled male chests and bear sightings.
For information about all of my books, please visit my website at
www.jenniferhilt.com
. You can sign up for my not too frequent newsletter here to get deals on my new releases:
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Being a talented procrastinator, come find me on Facebook
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H
appy Reading
!
Jennifer Hilt
A
MY LAMONT
– THE KODIAK DEN
Book One: Bear to Want
Book Two: Bear to Need
Book Three: Bear to Love
T
ALINA PERKINS
– THE WYLDE DEN
Book One: Bear His Mark
Book Two: Bear His Bond
Book Three: Bear Their Secret
K
IZZIE WALLER
– THE FOXHOLLOW DEN
Book One: Bearly Living
Book Two: Bearly Loving
Book Three: Bearly Gone
R
EBECCA THOMAS
– THE DENALI DEN
Book One: Beauty and the Bear
Book Two: Wed to the Bear
Book Three: Bound to the Bear
A
NDIE DEVAUX
- THE HIDDEN DEN
Book One: The Bears' Accidental Mate
Book Two: The Bear's Accidental Date
Book Three: The Bear's Accidental Fate
J
ENNIFER HILT
– THE ICY CAP DEN
Book One: His to Bear
Book Two: Mine to Bear
Book Three: Theirs to Bear
T
hank
you for joining the Alaskan Den Men for a wild adventure!